Rating:
Genre:
Spoken Word
Release Date: 05/19/2009
In the liner notes to
Isolated Incident,
Dane Cook thanks "all the people that stayed by me when my world was collapsing." Most would think he is referring to the ongoing accusations of joke stealing from his peers or maybe some Hollywood vehicles that bombed, but the thick-skinned comedian is actually talking about something truly difficult, the deaths of both his mother and father in a two-year span. As a result,
Isolated Incident is, to a degree, the "darker" and "more personal" album the pre-release hype trumpeted, one that draws laughs when it goes gross or mean and becomes a little unsettling when the elephant-in-the-room issue of
Cook's
"Haters" is addressed. The track comes after a very moving
"Mom and Pops" and then gives way to
"Adoption," with
Cook thinking about a family-oriented future. That's a soul-searching whirlwind in just ten minutes, and as the routine moves on to some hackneyed topics, it seems a great missed opportunity that this caring, sharing, and most of all genuine
Cook wasn't explored further. His material about the recently elected
President Obama was already hackneyed as the CD was being released, and if you haven't heard a routine about the voodoo doll-type joy of deleting people from your cell phone, you didn't attend your local comedy club during the 2008 season. Speaking of comedy clubs,
Isolated Incident was recorded at
the Laugh Factory in Hollywood, an intentionally small show for the stadium-sized star
Cook. Not the album to start with but the loyal fan gets a very different, revealing kind of show, plus a bonus DVD featuring the "making of" this rare gig.
~David Jeffries, All Music Guide
;)
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